How good are our Federal MPs. No sooner had FairGO alerted each of them by Votergram to the “Mortgage Lenders Insurance” big bank scam, than they got busy and solved it with a government guarantee home loans for borrowers.
We are lucky to have such responsive and helpful MPs. Don’t be misled by negative media.
GBAC Advisory learned of this Big Bank scam and successfully defeated one Big Bank to help a young Queensland couple. Then FairGO took it up with MPs.
Leeton hospital would not have lain idle for years if one person in Leeton had sent a Votergram about it to the NSW Parliament.
Nor would Sanjay, robbed of $100,000 in a home purchase settlement scam have been unable to get help from nab, AFCA or Police.
Nor would children have continued to be sexually abused by a swimming coach because authorities would not act.
Votergrams unlock the power of parliament for the people. That is how to get authorities moving!
Two groups harmed can’t get authorities to act. One group does:
1 Sanjay Joseph, scammed of $100,000 in a home purchases transaction (SMH 6/10/21), which he mostly recovered, says he could not get the assistance he needed from nab, AFCA or Police.
2 Elite swimmers claiming to have been sexually assaulted as children by their swimming coach could not as adults get action by authorities.
3. 8 teenage girls with pre-booked and paid seats on a country train were refused their seats and put off the train in the central west by the conductor. Following Votergrams to 130 state MPs a senior rail executive visited the father who organised the trip to apologise and the conductor was called before a disciplinary tribunal and cautioned or sacked.
Votergrams are easy, cheap & effective. MPs become the Champions of the people when asked properly by Votergram .
“Ask and you will receive” said Christ. To my amazement in 1986 when I invented Votergrams, those Australians who asked their MPs by sending Votergrams, did indeed receive what they wanted. Was it my accountant brain or divine inspiration? Jesus was a very practical person and His teachings gave us lessons for life.
“Do for others what you want them to do for you” and “Love your neighbours” with its Good Samaritan story, seem the most appropriate to our responsibility to God in respect of our Aboriginal First Nation fellow Australians.
The “First Nations voice to parliament” will be in due course determined. Meanwhile most thinking Australians can see that in terms of money, housing, health and education services Aboriginal First Nations people are suffering multi-generational PTS from rape, child kidnapping, murder and land theft at the hands of early governments and settlers. Few of us would survive that well.
The market value of land stolen at gun point from the Aboriginals who owned it, is booming like never before. How does that “Advance Australia Fair”?
What puzzles me is that each Aboriginal First Nations Australian has for 35 years, like every other Australian, had access to the very effective and inexpensive Votergram service to take their requests, suggestions, needs, ideas and criticisms, directly to each of the 227 Federal MPs.
Yet none have used it to have an effective voice on matters that affect them. Why Not?
Recently the service has been offered to them free of charge but still none have used it as a Voice to Parliament. Why?
The most effective voice to parliament is not necessarily that of a non-voting organisation to ministers. It is a voice from many individual voters in many individual electorates to each and every Member of Parliament. That sends a ballot box message and it gives each of 227 Federal MPs a chance to initiate what is wanted.
Votergrams have been offered to the Aboriginal First Nations people free for all of 2021
In Church on Sunday we prayed that “God would give wisdom to our leaders”.
But why put that on God when in democratic countries it is really in our hands?
Firstly we could elect wise people instead of electing people whose abilities or wisdom we simply do not know.
Secondly in a democracy the people we elect are not really “leaders “ in the sense that monarchs or dictators are. They are followers. Even some dictators are followers in order to govern more easily. Take Pontius Pilate’s judgement of Jesus based on what “the crowd” wanted, rather than the law.
In a democracy the elected politicians must do what active voters want because if they do not, they stand a good chance of being voted out of office.
So, instead of praying for God to do the work for us, we could pay more attention to the individuals we elect to office to see that we elect wise people to office. We waste our votes when we elect those whose qualities we do not know.
To help us, FairGO has for decades provided a Politicians Honour Roll of the MPs who best respond to Votergrams. Voters Network enables voters to rate how well or badly politicians are doing what those voters want.
God has given us democracy through the efforts of some great Christians. Let’s use it to have governments that at least work for the people more instead of making their priorities as follows:
1 themselves and their families
2 their parties
3 donors to their parties
4 professional lobbyists
5 voters
It is in our hands. As long as we refuse to take an active role, those who do will dominate.
FairGO’s experience shows that when we work with all of our elected representatives in parliament, congress or assembly, regardless of political parties, we the people get most of what we want as long as it is fair to others too.
Our rule should be to treat our politicians as we would like to be treated ourselves, politely and persuasively, giving more praise than criticism, for they are just ordinary people like the rest of us, with a very difficult job.
Jesus did not come just to be crucified and forgive our sins! He came so that we might live life to the full in a way that worked well for others as well as ourselves, regardless of their faith. He urged us to take up our cross and follow Him. When it comes to fixing society, our crosses might be made of balsa wood like model aeroplanes, if we go about it in the right way.
God leads us in mysterious ways and we were led to develop Votergrams and FairGO through experiencing blatant government dishonesty. I was led to move away from my lucrative Chartered Accountancy practice where one of my proudest achievements was to own a Ferrari and drive it to work and back every day. As a young 20 y.o I dreamt of becoming a millionaire. By the time I was 30 I had decided to serve God instead and was a partner in a Chartered firm, on my way to forming my own. It was as I neared 40 that a 5 year old Ferrari came on the market in perfect condition for the sort of money one would pay for a new Holden. I grabbed it with both hands and drove it all over the state for years saving people battling unaffordable debt. After 5 years I sold it for $1300 less than I paid, so financially it worked well. To an accountant that is quite important.
Over the past 35 years God has taught me that democracy is nothing like what we think it is and that through that knowledge we can in fact move metaphorical mountains – personal or societal.
When a church group approached me about getting government to ban smoking on commercial airliners for the sake of the health of other passengers, they could not believe our costs were so low when the issue was so vast and meant outsmarting the powerful Tobacco industry. That church group won a world first smoking ban on commercial airliners. That was like moving a mountain. Prayer and Votergrams. The tobacco industry peak body later offered me a job with them. At a funeral recently I met the same tobacco executive again. He greeted me saying “I know who you are. You’re the “Votergram Man”.
If you will bear with me I am going to try to work through some social issues and talk about how Christ teaches us to deal with them in our modern democracy, so different to the Roman occupation under which He lived. If I am less regular with posts than you would like, please forgive me. Running voluntarily and funding most of FairGO, Votergrams and Voters Network except for a couple of thousand dollars a year in donations, then working as a bank loan consultant to earn a living, sometimes leaves me a bit short of time.
The most common response we get in Voters Network or FairGO when asking people what they think about the way governments are acting or how society is being shaped is surprising. Essentially it is “I am interested in the topic, but not interested enough to do anything about it that would require my time, effort or money”.
Fair enough! Given that we live in a democracy of ‘Representative government” it is reasonable to conclude that the representatives we elect to parliament or congress, will also be interested in the same topics, but will not be interested enough to do anything about them either. ” They are representative of us and are there to represent us in accordance with our expressed wishes.
If we don’t care, they won’t care! It took me about 30 years to realise that, long after I had invented Votergrams and formed FairGO.
So now look at what Jesus said to his disciples. “Take up your cross and follow me.” He also said ” I have come so that you may live life to the full.” so he was not suggesting that we give up all Earthly activities and pleasure. He was just telling us that if we want to live life to the full we will need to make some sacrifices while we are here on Earth and contribute to making life worthwhile for others as well as ourselves. “Kindness is what God wants, not animal sacrifices”, he said. By linking them together we can understand that dishing out kindness would involve some sacrifices.
He lived under Roman occupation. We live in a representative democracy. The disciples and apostles were Christ’s representatives to spread his philosophy and words. He did not just appoint them and leave them to it. He trained them on the job as he spoke to the people of his time. When they did not understand, they asked and he explained. He provided them all with direction. So too it is up to Christians today to give their representatives directions in accordance with Christ’s teachings.
We should not be so conceited as to imagine that the people who represent us will be totally honest, competent in everything, always telling the truth and always doing the right thing. Jesus said “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone”. We all have our failings from time to time. Let us not fantasize that our politicians will be perfect. They are just like us. No better and no worse.
Numbers are the key in democracy. Numbers of soldiers were the key in Roman Occupation too. Decisions in parliaments, assemblies and congresses are made by majority opinion. It is not always by vote, but the majority rules in parliament, cabinet and the party room. So when we want to influence government we must make our views and reasons known to every Member of Parliament. As in the parable of the sower, some will ignore or forget our views, but some will help us achieve our goal. If a Christian can get 10 Christian voters to support them, they will carry much more than 10 times the power and influence. If a thousand, they almost cannot lose. But we must have a good number of reasons and it will be better if all those people some from most of the electorates. Jesus explains the benefit of planning a campaign before embarking on it.
But what he mostly tells us about our form of representative government is that if we do nothing, we will gain nothing. We must pick up that cross of having to direct our elected representatives to do what we all want. That in itself means that we must confer and be tolerant of other viewpoints to present a joint front.
It is not a heavy cross at all. When Jesus carried his own cross it was so heavy that he crumbled under the weight and a supporter was called in. But if just 10 people had carried that cross it would have been much lighter for each of them. So with campaigning for a fair and just society, it becomes a very light load when borne by 100, 1,000 or 100,000 Christians or other voters and our influence is enhanced exponentially.
FairGO sets the pattern of kindness.
Votergrams provide the parable of the sower multiplier technology.
Voters Network provides the load-lightening leverage of many people working for the common goal.
Jesus also extolled us to treat others as we would like to be treated. Our politicians have a thankless task and the media pours scorn on them every day for every false move. So at FairGO and in Voters Network we try very hard to treat our elected representatives very nicely, to praise them frequently in public for the many good things they do and to criticise them in the relative privacy of parliament when they get it wrong.
In preaching and teaching about God and a spiritual life, Jesus also gave us clues as to how we might enjoy life on Earth. Democracy is so different to the Roman occupation, to dictatorships and to monarchy in all of which the decisions are made for us and we play no decision-making role at all, that most people fail to comprehend how it works.
Our politicians are mostly not “leaders” any more than Pontius Pilate was a leader. They are followers of the voter-crowd just as Pilate followed the Jewish crowd who wanted blood. It could not be any other way, because in the end the voters determine the careers and pay packets of the politicians.
When we care for one another and work together with our MPs we will enjoy the most satisfying lives, shaped by ourselves through them.
You might like to join Voters Network and do your small bit along with others. The you will be able to say on that last day, “I have truly loved my neighbours as myself.”
A very small minority controls Australia, getting what it wants by asking the right people in the right way, for exactly what it wants, and saying how it can be achieved.
The silent majority of Australians miss out, hoping that someone else will get it for them. That’s just Fantasy!
Power originates with votes. Each pauper has one vote at elections just like each billionaire.
It is not voting alone that gives them power. It is asking the right people in the right way at the right time and using their votes as an enticement or punishment.
The belief that your local MP or the PM will fix things for you is pure fantasy. That is not how life works!
Join Voters Network and learn how to use your amazing power yourself to shape the aspect of society that worries you most. Hundreds of Australians are doing that now.
Parables & stories like the sower, woman seeking justice from judge, do unto others, throwing stones, the walls of Jericho and knocking on doors give superb guidelines on how to shape democratic society in the way that works best.
If you want good Christian values as taught by Christ and adapted for modern democratic society, then you should take up your cross and get involved in Voters Network. It is not a “Christian” network as such, but it was started by Christians and there are a good few Christians involved. Everyone is welcome, just as Christ welcomed everyone.
You know what Christ taught that could make a world of difference to our society. Knowledge is all very well, but it is a question of how you use it to accomplish what Christ set in motion.
“Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all “- Pericles (Athenian statesman)
Together FairGO, Votergrams and Voters Network give every Christian all the power and influence they need to start shaping Australian Society. If they live outside Australia they they can be show what to do in their own society.
When we read Christ saying “Take up your cross…” we see it as extremely hard to do, but shaping society is not hard at all. His followers have been doing that for centuries. You need to do it in a way that suits a 21st century democracy
You can speak up too, in the right way, to the right people, at the right time. We have helped Aussies do that for the past 35 years, avoiding media or public attention to focus on quietly persuading the decision-makers in parliament.
Prayer is very powerful and it is great once one understands its purpose as well as its power. But I sometimes think that we pray for God to do things we could well do ourselves with a little bit of our time, effort and money. In Australia we do not live as subjects of an all powerful monarch or an occupying military dictatorship as Christ did. We live in a democracy in which we have truly amazing power and influence to shape society and our own lives. Far too often we pray for God to make it work better, when we could easily do that ourselves.
I think it was God who prompted me to move from my comfortable Chartered Accountancy practice and make our democracy work better for the broad community – making it do for others what I wanted it to do for me. So I invented Votergrams, formed FairGO and Voters Network.
FairGO and Voters Network have spent 30+ years developing secret strategies that enable every Australian voter to exert power and influence over their society and over matters that affect their own lives. It takes a little time, effort and money, like everything worthwhile.
To persuade voters to elect them in the 2019 election, each member of Federal Parliament spent on average $350,000. It costs money to gain power ! Most people want a good return on that sort of spending.
If you put in $50 plus 30 minutes a month to Voters Network you could exert incredible power and influence and enjoy a far better society and life. If every Voters Network member put in $20 plus 30 minutes a month you could probably all do the same.
If you wanted someone else to handle it all for you and others like you, FairGO is an expert at that.
Power and influence are yours for the taking – like the love of God. Many have done just that over the past 34 years and achieved exactly what they wanted, both on personal and national level. One small Christian group had smoking banned on commercial airlines using FairGO’s Votergrams. It was a world first! Look what those seeds have produced.
When I started I “knew” that politicians did not care what voters wanted and just primarily worked for the people who funded them into office. Now I know that politicians DO want to help voters even more than they want to help those who fund them into office. BUT voters mostly don’t tell them what they want done, don’t build relationships with their MPs, don’t even know that is how to get power and influence because that is how democracy works.
When I started my understanding was wrong and in 34 years I have learned how to enjoy amazing power and influence for the benefit primarily of others.
In those 34 years politicians too have changed. Once voters started approaching them in the right way through FairGO, they discovered that they could help people just like they had always wanted to do, because we gave them new opportunities to do that.
So we have all learned and gained a better understanding of how we can share power for our mutual benefit. If you would like to see hris